


Hush, Little Baby

by draca (wyvernwolf)



Category: Life on Mars (UK)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-06
Updated: 2010-09-06
Packaged: 2017-10-11 13:25:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/112881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wyvernwolf/pseuds/draca
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Baby!" The sergeant blurted out, holding the baby out to Gene who automatically took a step away.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hush, Little Baby

  
It had started with an early morning phone call on his first day off in weeks. Still half-asleep, Gene had only registered the screaming coming down the handset and the words "emergency" and "help" being stuttered down the line by the terrified sounding desk sergeant before he was falling out of bed, trying to pull his clothes on at the same time and nearly tripping down the stairs and breaking his neck.

One hair-raising, even by Gene's own standards, drive later and he was running full-tilt into the station with his gun out reading to shoot the bastards that dare invade his domain only to be brought up short by the sight of the aforementioned sergeant, standing helplessly behind the counter and awkwardly holding a blue-blanket wrapped bundle like it was a bomb. Only it wasn't because no bomb that Gene had ever heard of could cry fit to raise the dead.

"What the hell is that?" he demanded even though he already knew the answer.

"Baby!" The sergeant blurted out, holding the baby out to Gene who automatically took a step away.

"I can bloody well see that. What's it doing here? And make it stop that bloody noise!"

"I can't, Guv! I've tried and it just won't stop!" The sergeant's voice wavered before breaking at the end of his sentence making Gene take a closer look at him. The poor man's hair was standing on end, looking like he'd been pulling at it, and his face was nearly as red as the baby's.

Unable to hold a grudge in the face of the man's obvious distress, Gene swallowed down the bollocking he'd been about to deliver and instead listened without commenting as the sergeant launched into a rambling explanation. Apparently, he'd been gone for a few minutes to make himself a cup of tea and when he'd returned, the baby had been on the counter with no sign of it's Mum nearby. He'd searched but hadn't found anything, not even a note. He hadn't intended on disturbing the DCI; had indeed planned on foisting off the baby over to DI Tyler who was due to come in shortly but then the baby had woken up and started crying. That was when he'd panicked and called the first person he could think of; the Guv.

Sergeant McKay, a staid steadfast bachelor in his fifties, looked on the verge of pitching over in a faint and in a fit of pity, Gene decided the man had suffered enough and relieved him of his burden before sending the harassed man home. McKay, not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, literally bolted out the door as soon as his hands were free. Shaking his head in wry amusement, Gene watched the bid for freedom before sourly looking down.

"And what the bloody hell am I supposed to do with you?" he asked the still wailing baby.

When the only response was an even more screwed up face and an increase in volume, Gene sighed.

He could already tell that it was going to be a right bastard of a day.

Things only went further downhill from there.

After calling and verbally threatening to tear the knackers off his team if they didn't show up right that bloody minute, Gene had tried to shut the baby up by rocking and even singing to it but had failed miserably. By the time Sam and the others had straggled in, Gene was seriously contemplating leaving the baby in Litton's office and letting him deal with it. When Cartwright took the baby from him and the crying tapered off, Gene nearly grabbed her to kiss her senseless until he realised that doing that could set the crying off again. Instead, he settled for showing his appreciation by patting her on the bum. That gained him a harsh look from Sam before he was distracted by Cartwright showing him the baby.

After a thorough inspection by a surprisingly competent-at-handling-a-squirming-baby Sam, they had confirmed that the baby was a boy and that there was nothing that could be used to identify him or his mother. Not wasting anymore time, and wanting the baby gone as soon as possible, Gene ordered Cartwright to "get it the hell away from me" before sending the rest of his team packing to track down Mum.

As he watched them clatter out of the office, he seriously contemplated going home and leaving the whole mess in Sam's hands but his attention had been caught by how carefully Sam had treated the baby so he stayed. Anyway, the baby was safely ensconced far, far away from him and they were serving his favourite meal of bangers and mash in the cafeteria. Things were starting to look up.

The first few hours had been perfect. Gene had had his bangers and mash, the plonks from the Women's Department were in heaven taken turns cooing and nursing the baby, but then sometime around lunchtime things had gone arse over tit. Something, or someone had disturbed it and the baby had started crying.

And crying.

And then crying some more.

It was utter bedlam. No matter what anyone did, the crying hadn't stopped and Gene swore that it was echoing through the whole damned station. Just when he thought it couldn't get any worse, the crying stopped and turned into high pitched screams that grated on everybody's nerves and made Gene want to fill his ears with cement so he couldn't hear them.

The plonks were wringing their hands over what to do. They had fed, cleaned, changed and played with it, but the little bugger hadn't stopped screaming. The real icing on the cake was when the Super had torn him apart on the phone informing him that no one was going home until the mother had been found. Then and there Gene swore that he would never ever have any children; carrying on his family name be damned. Nothing was worth this torture.

It was late afternoon and Gene was beginning to regret not going home because his head felt like it was going to explode and he was feeling right knackered when a hysterical woman had come in screaming that her "precious baby" had been kidnapped. A collective sigh of relief had been heaved and Gene had been on the verge of breaking out the scotch in celebration when bloody Tyler announced he had his "spidey sensors" were tingling, whatever the hell that meant, and insisted on questioning the woman. Which was a damned lucky thing, not that Gene would ever admit that out loud, because they'd found out that her missing baby hadn't been a baby at all but was a blasted dog. And not a normal dog either, but one of those little brainless fluffy things that danced around your ankles, yapp, yapp, yapping away.

To get her and her increasing hysterics out of his station, Gene had turned her over to Skelton, warning him to not come back until he'd found the damned dog before dropping into his chair with a disgruntled groan.

It looked like they were going to be stuck with the little unholy bundle of unjoy for a while more.

Driven to his final nerve, Gene escaped into his office, his one aim right then to get to the bottle of single malt hidden deep down at the back of his filing cabinet. The day felt like it would never end. He was exhausted, his ears were ringing and he wanted nothing more but to sit down, put his feet up and take a nap.

Lost in his dreams of a nice long nap, Gene was just swinging open the door to his office when it registered that there was someone already in the room. Pausing mid-step, he took a careful look inside and then had to blink repeatedly at the sight that greeted him.

Sam was sitting on the sofa in Gene's office, singing softly and rocking the baby, or "Trouble" as Gene had nicknamed him. And amazingly, it looked like where all the women from the station had failed, Sam was succeeding. The little bundle of non-top screaming was quiet and actually gurgling at the DI. Gurgling and using small pink hands to pat Sam's face. Gene found himself almost letting out an embarrassing cooing sound at the sight before he forcibly restrained himself. He stuck a disgusted look on his face, even as he silently admitted that they made a damned sweet picture, and made his usual entrance into the room, albeit a little quieter than usual.

"Typical that a big girl like you would be able to shut that thing up."

Sam looked up and rolled his eyes at Gene but kept up his rocking motion, not wanting to disturb the now sleeping baby.

"It was all the people and noise outside. He didn't like it. So I thought it would be better if I got him somewhere quiet and it looks like it's working."

Gene only huffed as he found what he was looking for and held the bottle up in triumph. He grabbed two glasses and made his way over to where Sam was before lowering himself carefully next to the other man and the baby in his arms. Pouring a measure into each glass he handed one to Sam, who managed to somehow juggle baby and glass with a dexterity that Gene privately admired, before leaning back with a sigh and letting himself sink into the comfort of his worn couch.

"What a day," he sighed, before taking a deep swallow of his drink. He rolled his head to the side and looked at Sam, taking in the small smile and quiet look on his face. It was rare that he saw Sam looking so peaceful so he enjoyed it while he could, unabashedly staring. When Sam looked up and saw Gene staring at him, he just smiled back and returned his attention to the baby in his arms. Not long after, Gene's head came to rest on his shoulder and soft snuffling sounds could be heard coming from him.

As all the other CID members had already left for the night, Sam wasn't too concerned about the prospect of anyone walking in on them so he decided they'd be no harm in letting Gene sleep for a while. It had been a long day for all of them and if letting his arm and shoulder be used as a pillow would help relieve Gene, then Sam wasn't going to make a fuss about it. Adjusting the baby so he was resting more comfortably, Sam managed to get his left arm around Gene so he could draw him closer. Letting his own head drop back, he stared at the smoke stained ceiling, relishing the peaceful moment.

-Fin-


End file.
